JavaScript Application Cookbook By Jerry Bradenbaugh Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: September 1999 ISBN: 1-56592-577-7 Pages: 476 JavaScript Application Cookbook literally hands the Webmaster a set of ready-to-go, client-side JavaScript applications with thorough documentation to help them understand and extend the applications By providing such a set of applications, JavaScript Application Cookbook allows Webmasters to immediately add extra functionality to their Web sites Copyright Editor's Note Preface What You Should Know Font Conventions Book Structure About the Code Development and Testing We'd Like to Hear From You Acknowledgments Introduction JavaScript Pros Basic JavaScript Programming Strategy JavaScript Approaches in These Applications Moving On Chapter The Client-Side Search Engine Section 1.1 Execution Requirements Section 1.2 The Syntax Breakdown Section 1.3 nav.html Section 1.4 Building Your Own JavaScript Database Section 1.5 Potential Extensions Chapter The Online Test Section 2.1 Execution Requirements Section 2.2 The Syntax Breakdown Section 2.3 index.html—The Frameset Section 2.4 questions.js—The JavaScript Source File Section 2.5 administer.html Section 2.6 Potential Extensions Chapter The Interactive Slideshow Section 3.1 Execution Requirements Section 3.2 The Syntax Breakdown Section 3.3 Application Variables Section 3.4 The Application Functions Section 3.5 Potential Extensions Chapter The Multiple Search Engine Interface Section 4.1 Execution Requirements Section 4.2 The Syntax Breakdown Section 4.3 Potential Extension: Adding User Control Chapter ImageMachine Section 5.1 Execution Requirements Section 5.2 The Syntax Breakdown Section 5.3 Potential Extension: Adding Attributes to the Template Chapter Implementing JavaScript Source Files Section 6.1 arrays.js Section 6.2 cookies.js Section 6.3 dhtml.js Section 6.4 events.js Section 6.5 frames.js Section 6.6 images.js Section 6.7 navbar.js Section 6.8 numbers.js Section 6.9 objects.js Section 6.10 strings.js Section 6.11 Potential Extensions Chapter Cookie-Based User Preferences Section 7.1 Execution Requirements Section 7.2 Syntax Breakdown Section 7.3 prefs.html Section 7.4 dive.html Section 7.5 Potential Extensions Chapter The JavaScript Shopping Cart Section 8.1 Shopping Bag Walk-Through Section 8.2 Execution Requirements Section 8.3 Syntax Breakdown Section 8.4 Step 1: Loading Shopping Bag Section 8.5 Step 2: Displaying Products Section 8.6 Step 3: Showing All the Categories Section 8.7 Step 4: Adding Products to the Shopping Bag Section 8.8 Step 5: Changing the Order/Checking Out Section 8.9 Potential Extensions Chapter Ciphers in JavaScript Section 9.1 How Ciphers Work Section 9.2 Execution Requirements Section 9.3 The Syntax Breakdown Section 9.4 Potential Extensions Chapter 10 Cyber Greetings: Drag-and-Drop Email Section 10.1 Execution Requirements Section 10.2 Syntax Breakdown Section 10.3 The Server Side Section 10.4 Potential Extensions Chapter 11 Context-Sensitive Help Section 11.1 Execution Requirements Section 11.2 Syntax Breakdown Section 11.3 Potential Extensions Epilogue Appendix A JavaScript Reference Section A.1 Browser Compatibility Section A.2 Objects, Methods, and Properties Section A.3 Top-Level Properties and Functions Section A.4 Event Handlers Appendix B Web Resources Section B.1 Cool JavaScript Sites Section B.2 JavaScript Reference Section B.3 JavaScript FAQs Section B.4 DHTML Reference Section B.5 Document Object Model Reference Section B.6 Perl/CGI Reference Section B.7 Graphics Resources Section B.8 Similar Applications Appendix C Using Perl Scripts Section C.1 A Perl/CGI Overview Section C.2 Getting Perl Section C.3 The Shopping Bag Script—bag.pl Section C.4 The CyberGreeting Script—greet.pl Colophon Index Copyright © 1999 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472 O'Reilly & Associates books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use Online editions are also available for most titles (http://safari.oreilly.com) For more information contact our corporate/institutional sales department: 800-998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com The O'Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O'Reilly & Associates, Inc Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks Where those designations appear in this book, and O'Reilly & Associates, Inc was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps The use of the hippopotamus image in association with JavaScript is a trademark of O'Reilly & Associates, Inc While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein Editor's Note Welcome to JavaScript Application Cookbook, the second book in O'Reilly's Cookbook line This book is different enough from the Perl Cookbook, our first offering, that it seems worth explaining In his foreword to the Perl Cookbook, Larry Wall writes that the essence of the book is "not to cook for you (it can't) or even to teach you how to cook (though it helps), but rather to pass on various bits of culture that have been found useful " Perl Cookbook is a compendium of cooking techniques "Finding the Nth Occurrence of a Match" is roughly equivalent to "How to Brown Butter." "Sorting a Hash" can be thought of as "Peeling Roasted Red Peppers." JavaScript Application Cookbook, on the other hand, is a pure recipe book Think of "Shopping Bag: The JavaScript Shopping Cart" as "Mini Scallion Biscuits with Smoked Salmon Spread." Each chapter provides the code and documentation for a useful web application written (mostly) entirely in JavaScript Prepare each recipe as Jerry has written it or just take key concepts and fold them into your own creations (Nick Heinle's Designing with JavaScript contains smaller recipes that you can drop into a single web page, whereas this book shows you how to write full client-side web applications in JavaScript, the only scripting language that browsers natively understand.) Given these two different approaches, what's our definition of a Cookbook? A Cookbook isn't content plugged into an inflexible format; it's a book that helps you "cook up code." Expect to see more Cookbooks doing that in a variety of ways —Richard Koman, Editor Preface Something was missing Here I was, poring through stacks of JavaScript books and screen after screen of web sites, soaking in as much code and as many concepts as possible But after picking up some new syntax or a slick technique from the guru de jour, I didn't know what to with it outside the scope of the example It was as if I had a kitchen full of ingredients, but no recipes I had all these cool JavaScript techniques and code snippets, but I wasn't sure how to apply them to solve common web site problems Sure, some of those books had JavaScript applications, but they weren't relevant to the Web I mean, a blackjack game is great So is a spreadsheet app, but I'm not going to put those on a web site any time soon So here are some recipes Not just for checking a browser's identity or doing an image rollover, but full-blown applications that you'll actually want to use on your web site The applications here are pretty much out of the box You can copy them into a folder on your web server (or local computer) and run them immediately The chapters that follow are packed with JavaScript that helps you help users perform common web tasks, such as site searching, collecting survey info, creating image rollovers, viewing online presentations, cyber shopping, and plenty more Of course, you'll want to modify them to make them work best for you, but they're more or less ready to go In addition, each application comes with a lengthy explanation so that you can check out what makes each one work What You Should Know This is not a beginner's book You will not learn JavaScript here You will learn how to use it You don't have to be a three-year JavaScript veteran, but if info.replace(/